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Happy 328th Birthday, Philly!
In 1681, as a repayment for his £16,000 debt, Charles II of England granted William Penn a charter for what would eventually become the Pennsylvania colony. Shortly after receiving the charter, Penn began planning “a large Towne or City in the most Convenient place upon the Delaware River for health & Navigation.” Penn sent his cousin Captain William Markham with a small band of colonists to survey the area. By January 1681, about 40,000 square miles were confirmed to William Penn under the Great Seal. Penn induced people to emigrate by offering a very reasonable price of 40 shillings per hundred acres, and “shares” of 5,000 acres for 100 pounds.
On June 18, 1682 the city of Philadelphia was born, then described as “a high and dry land next to the water, with a shore ornamented with a fine view of pine trees growing upon it.” Penn created the name Philadelphia by combining the Greek words philos, “love” or “friendship”, and adelphos, “brother”. Penn wanted the city’s inhabitants to live peacefully in the area without a fortress or walls, so he paid the Lenape tribe a fair price for the land. Legend has it that Penn made a treaty of friendship with Lenape Chief Tammany under an elm tree at Shackamaxon, in what is now the city’s Kensington section. As a Quaker, Penn had experienced religious persecution, and envisioned a city where all people regardless of religion could worship freely and live together. He also planned that the city’s streets would be set up in a grid, with the idea that the city would be more like the rural towns of England than its crowded cities. The homes would be spread far apart and surrounded by gardens and orchards. Although green spaces may be fewer and farther between in our dear city, modern Philadelphians enjoy our beautiful Independence Mall and Rittenhouse Square which reflect Penn’s vision.
Philadelphia today is one of the most exciting and vibrant cities in the United States. Three hundred and twenty-eight years after Bill Penn laid out the grid of our streets, it seems Philadelphia is on its way to once again becoming the great cultural center it was during our nations most formative years.
Written by intern on 06/18/2010 in Blog | Event | History | Philadelphia
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